The tobacco industry has a long history of oppression. In the late 1600s, Filipino farmers – especially those in the Ilocos and Cagayan Valley regions – were subjected to abuse by the Spanish government, being forced to fulfill tobacco production quotas on the pain of corporeal punishment.
In recent years, there were moves to revolutionize and upgrade the industry, and purportedly, to give more benefits and incentives to tobacco farmers. But apart from diplomas for excellence in tobacco production, not much in terms of financial assistance to uplift standards of living were received by the farmers.
As an example, during the term of President Corazon Aquino, government mandated that 15 percent of excise taxes from cigarettes and cigars — approximately P2 billion annually — would go back to the tobacco farmer.
Guess where the money is going? To congressmen and local government units who were stipulated by law to be recipients/caretakers of the money. So, instead of giving tobacco growers the much needed increase in farm gate prices, money was spent for building leaf drying and curing plants which mushroomed all over the tobacco-growing provinces.
Apparently, contractors who got juicy building contracts are more generous campaign contributors than tobacco farmers.
Section 33 of the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 stipulates that the state would provide support for individual tobacco growers, cooperatives, and displaced cigarette factory workers for a period not exceeding five years. How this would specifically be implemented is not yet clear.
There are some 70,000 farmers from 27 tobacco-growing provinces, majority of them are from northern Luzon, who will need to learn and develop alternative farming systems, plant alternative crops and be trained for other livelihood projects as tobacco lands are expected to shrink.
Similarly, some 11,000 workers in the manufacturing sector will also need retraining as the manufacturing side of the industry gears for further decreased sales resulting from the strict ban on advertisements and promotions plus the total smoking ban on youths below 18 years old.
Apparently, a number of local government units from tobacco-growing provinces had already "monetized" the unreleased excise tax collections during the past years by using these as collateral against borrowings from banks. This means that future collection of tobacco farmers’ share of the excise tax is already committed to pay loans and interest charges.
Together with the anticipated overall reduction in excise tax revenues, this seriously puts at risk any possibility for new money allocated to the proposed programs as stipulated in the tobacco regulatory law.
On the verge of extinction, the tobacco farmers need to undergo rehabilitation and retraining. However, it seems that there will be insufficient or no funding at all to save.
The health department estimates that the country spent P42 billion last year – more than twice the estimated loss in revenue from tobacco taxes – in medical expenses for tobacco-related diseases as well as losses in productivity. Gaining more from a healthier populace definitely compensates any loss in tax revenues.
As we move to improve and protect public health specifically against diseases related to cigarette smoking, let us not however forget those who sweated in the fields to contribute a significant amount to the local economy in the past and generated export revenues from the sale of aromatic tobacco leaves then in demand by an addicted world.
In the implementation of the law to stamp out smokers, the provision that extends assistance to thousands of affected tobacco farmers and workers must be vigorously pursued.
Just as the state encouraged them to rely on this livelihood for centuries, it is equally the moral obligation of the government now to ensure that they find alternative livelihood and a source of living.
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